With circumcision rates declining, men and women are organizing to ban circumcisions
The two day-old naked infant boy was strapped down and spread eagle on a restraining board in a Marin General Hospital surgery room. He screamed and struggled as the doctor inserted a Plastibell without anesthesia, a surgical device used to forcefully separate the boy's foreskin from his penis gland so that the targeted tissue can be cut off.
"There is no medical reason for doing this," the doctor muttered to the group of 20 nursing school students from College of Marin standing around him.
As Marilyn Milos, a nursing school student and mother of four, witnessed this routine circumcision two months before her 1979 graduation, she knew she would dedicate her life to fighting the practice.
Six years later, Milos' outspokenness got her fired from her nursing job at that same hospital. Three mothers complained about her description of circumcision. Milos is now a San Angelo anti-circumcision activist and founder of the National Organization of Circumcision Information Resource Centers (NOCIRC). After 26 years of activism, she is known as the movement's matriarch. She is heading one of the first and biggest anti-circumcision movements in the world.
The issue of routine infant circumcision of males is the subject of increasing debate. The United States currently has the highest rate of male circumcision among developed countries. A growing and diverse anti-circumcision movement of "intactivists" is attacking the practice for many reasons, including medical, legal, ethical, cultural and religious. Many intactivists are involved in the National Organization of Restoring Men (NORM), an international foreskin restoration support movement for circumcised men engaging in a self-administered practice to restore what they lost.
Whereas proponents of circumcision argue that the practice has numerous lifelong health benefits related to hygiene and infection risks, intactivists argue that the benefits are insignificant and do not legitimize such an invasive surgery that amputates healthy tissue.
Male circumcision, a partial or full removal of the foreskin covering the penis gland, is performed by a doctor during the first one or two weeks of an infant boy's life, often with no anesthesia. Jewish and Muslims circumcisions, which comprise a small number of U.S. cases, are traditionally performed on infant boys as part of a religious ritual.
Circumcision for secular reasons, which is uncommon in most of Europe, Central and South America and Asia, appeared in the United States during the second half of the nineteenth century. A small number of medical doctors argued that it was essential for good hygiene and was an effective cure against masturbation, which, at the time of widespread sexual repression, was considered sinful and harmful.
In the U.S. at the turn of the 19th century, there was a wide shift towards a medicalization of the human body and an institutionalization of health care. Childbirth, which before had been handled at home by midwives who did not perform circumcision, was being performed in hospitals where doctors both advocated and performed circumcision. There are no exact or reliable national statistics on circumcision rates, leaving both proponents and opponents guessing what the future trend will be.
The most reliable statistics show a decline in U.S circumcision rates from 84 percent of infants in 1985 to 56 percent in 2003, according to the National Center for Health Statistics. Circumcision proponents downplay the significance of the declining rate. They point out that the statistics, based only on hospital discharge surveys from less than 5 percent of U.S hospitals, exclude religious and subsequent circumcisions.
Circumcision proponents largely base their arguments on scientific research. They quote studies showing that circumcision lowers the risk of urinary tract infections. According to the American Pediatrics Association these infections affects about 1 percent of uncircumcised infants boys. Circumcision prevents bacteria from accumulating under the foreskin, which can cause local skin infections. It also lowers the risk of contracting HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases that can be contracted through small abrasions that occurs in the foreskin during intercourse.
Proponents also argue that it is easier for circumcised men to keep themselves clean. Many young men boys are unable to retract the foreskin, a condition called phimosis that usually corrects itself but which in about one percent of uncircumcised men requires circumcision at at an older age.
The intactivist movement avoids the use of the term "uncircumcised" because it owns up to circumcision as the norm, something it wishes to change. Instead, it uses terms like "intact" or "natural" to emphasize that which is the biological norm.
"Circumcision is always fear-based," Milos said. "Every excuse has been consistent with the dreaded disease of the time."
According to Milos, the foreskin is normal tissue that not only has a protective purpose but also a sexual one. "(The foreskin) has 10,000 to 20,000 nerve endings that allows a man to know where he is in relation to the orgasmic threshold," said Milos and points out that sensitivity is not relegated to the penis glands.
The effects of circumcision on sensitivity and sexual functioning is a disputed issue that is currently being looked at in the Penile Sensitivity Touch Test Study, a San Fransisco study awaiting publication later this year. When the foreskin, which covers and moistens the mucosal cells of the penis gland, is removed, the glands become an external organ and the skin hardens in a process called keratinization. Many men involved in NORM have reported an almost complete loss of sensitivity in the penis gland prior to foreskin restoration and subsequently, a regaining of sensitivity and an increase in sexual satifaction.
Complications such as excessive bleeding, infections and even death, are rare and occur in between 0.2 and 0.6 percent of hospital circumcisions, according to an American Pediatrics Association 1999 statement on circumcision. The APA states that although there are potential medical benefits of infant male circumcision, these are not sufficient to recommend the practice. Milos and other intactivists call the APA statement a compromised document and point out that no medical association in the world recommends routine circumcision.
Intactivists argue that the motive for the practice is financial. The procedure takes anywhere from 5 to 45 minutes and can cost between $100 to $750.
"There's a lot of money to be made from it," said Matthew Hess, a San Diego intactivist and President of MGMBill.org, a private non-profit organization lobbying to ban circumcision. "Many parents are victims as well because they are not being given enough information," said Hess.
The MGMBill proposal would ban all forms of male circumcision, including for religious practice, until the male is 18 years old and can decide for himself. The proposal was sent out for the third time on Feb. 6, 2006, during MGMBill's annual bill submission, to about 2,700 state and federal legislators in 15 states around the nation.
"Overall we're not getting a lot of response," said Hess, who attributes the legislators cold shoulders and their unwillingness to sponsor the bill to the controversial nature of the issue. "It might cost them a lot of votes, especially from Muslim and Jewish communities."
A nationwide lobbying effort by the International Coalition for Genital Integrity, has sucessfully removed male circumcision from Medicaid coverage in 16 U.S. states including California.
"The only thing doctors learn about the foreskin in medical school is a two sentence phrase: the foreskin is that which is in front of the glands and that which we cut off in circumcision," said Wayne Griffiths, 72, the co-founder and director of the National Organization of Restoring Men.
Griffiths, who was circumcised at birth, has fully restored his foreskin with a three-quarter inch of overhang, through a process called tissue expansion that took him a year and a half to complete.
There are many different devices used to restore foreskin by tissue expansion, ranging from a simple taping to the use of coaxing devices such as the bestselling TLC Tugger, which is sold online for $46. The TLC Tugger, which includes two silicone cones that keeps the penis shaft skin rolled over the gland and attaches to a knee strap or a weight that pulls the skin over the gland, can be worn under regular clothing.
According to Griffiths and Jim Bigelow, a psychologist and author of "The Joy of Uncircumcising," the quintessential guide to foreskin restoration, what works best is a moderately applied tugging force. Griffiths suggests a 7 to 10 ounces weight be applied for four to eight hours per day, 5 days a week.
"You have to be consistent with the regimen," says Griffiths, who emphasizes patience.
NORM, which started in 1989, has grown into 10 groups in the US along with groups in seven other countries. The organization holds monthly meetings where men, introduced only on a first-name basis, can ask questions and share their own experiences. Griffiths estimates that between 20,000 and 30,000 men have requested information from NORM and are restoring themselves. He now gets about 10 requests per day and spends about 15 hours per week of his spare time corresponding with men interested in restoration.
NOCIRC, a pioneering umbrella organization, has grown to include more than 110 local chapters throughout the United States and centers in 17 different countries. The intactivists movement is largely Internet-based and focuses on education.
"There needs to be more prominent doctors speaking out against circumcision," said Richard Russell, 63, a Moreno Valley English teacher and retired Air Force attorney turned intactivist.
Russell, a circumcised Georgia-born who describes himself as an unlikely candidate for activism, is working to launch a local Los Angeles NOCIRC chapter and is planning to set up a booth at local baby shows. Like most intactivists, Russell is hopeful that circumcision will have disappeared in his own lifetime.
"Circumcision is a cure in search of a disease," said Russell, who is enjoying life as a restored man. "Sex is much better than it ever was before."
Originally published in the Daily Sundial on 4/25/06
Original URL
Why are students still offered Blue Cross health insurance?
When 4-year-old Selah Shaeffer developed a cancerous tumor and needed extensive medical treatment, her health insurance coverage was cancelled and her mother and father ended up with a medical bill exceeding $60,000 and the prospect of losing their home. The mistreatment of the Shaeffer family, described in a Sept. 17 article of the Los Angeles Times, is only one of more than 70 cases in which Blue Cross of California, the state's largest health insurance provider, illegally cancelled health insurance policies when policyholders depended on them the most.
In October, Blue Cross of California discreetly settled more than 70 lawsuits by patients whose insurance policies were illegally cancelled. The settlements were for undisclosed amounts that allowed the Shaeffer family and other victims to pay for the treatments. The plaintiffs claimed that they were dropped from their policies because Blue Cross claimed to have found discrepancies in the applications. The insurance giant, which denies any wrongdoing, was also recently fined $200,000 by the California Department of Managed Health Care for illegally canceling one particular patient's coverage and was later sued again, in a separate lawsuit, by several hospitals for failing to pay for the care of patients.
CSUN provides a lot of business to Blue Cross of California. Through its partnership with insurance broker Acordia Somerton, an insurance agent specializing in insurance for college students, CSUN endorses Blue Cross as the main provider of student health insurance. The college administration needs to review its practice of doing business with this dubious corporation, which so blatantly disregards human life in favor of profit. Students should be presented a choice of an alternative insurance from a provider that is more ethical or, at least, does not systematically and illegally cancel insurance policies.
Such a policy is arguably hard to find. Most major health insurance providers in California have been sued in cases similar to those affecting Blue Cross and most operate on a for-profit basis, which means they actively avoid responsibility to pay up. To some extent, the problem is not simply with Blue Cross or any other for-profit health care provider, but with the overall lack of social responsibility among corporations within this capitalist society.
According to state law, fraud provides a legal basis for canceling coverage. All insurance companies review a policyholder's application once a claim has been made. However, a practice that was business as usual for Blue Cross of California was ruled to be repeated violations of state laws in the court decisions.
The Blue Cross scandal especially pertains to CSUN's international students, who are required to purchase a health insurance and handed the Acordia Somerton brochure during orientation. A majority of international students at CSUN buy their policy through Acordia Somerton, which offers only Blue Cross policies.
Although international students are not required to purchase their health insurance from Blue Cross, they need to show proof of insurance that meets specific minimum requirements. Consequently, out of convenience, the relatively low cost of the policy and the lack of presented choices, most international students choose to give their business to Blue Cross.
Amid mounting public criticism, Blue Cross has declared their intentions to reform their practices, but critics have dismissed those claims as being simply for show. The secret court settlements appear to be a way for the company to escape accountability and sweep the matter under the rug by paying off the plaintiffs with undisclosed settlements. The secret settlements benefit Blue Cross because the matter has received little public attention and there is little pressure on the company to reform its practices.
In an attempt to remake its tarnished image, Blue Cross of California hired Sitrick and Company, a successful PR firm specializing in crisis management for corporate wrongdoers including Halliburton and Exxon Mobile. Sitrick and Company focuses on the "difficult task of keeping clients out of the press," according to the company Web site. In the case of Blue Cross, this focus means restricting media attention surrounding the lawsuits and avoiding the risk that the court rulings set legal precedent, which would require industry-wide reforms.
CSUN should send a clear message to Blue Cross to change its wrongful practices. Students should respond by canceling their health insurance policies and taking their business elsewhere. As policyholders and customers, students inevitably support Blue Cross and its unethical practices.
Students and the college should seriously reconsider their support for a company that cares more about profit than it does for its responsibilities as a healthcare insurance provider. In the end, if a CSUN student turns to Blue Cross expecting them to take care of a $200,000 medical bill acquired during a time of crisis spent in a hospital bed, he or she might experience the additional pain when they realize that their policy was also cancelled because of corporate greed.
Originally published in the Daily Sundial on 11/08/06
Original URL
In October, Blue Cross of California discreetly settled more than 70 lawsuits by patients whose insurance policies were illegally cancelled. The settlements were for undisclosed amounts that allowed the Shaeffer family and other victims to pay for the treatments. The plaintiffs claimed that they were dropped from their policies because Blue Cross claimed to have found discrepancies in the applications. The insurance giant, which denies any wrongdoing, was also recently fined $200,000 by the California Department of Managed Health Care for illegally canceling one particular patient's coverage and was later sued again, in a separate lawsuit, by several hospitals for failing to pay for the care of patients.
CSUN provides a lot of business to Blue Cross of California. Through its partnership with insurance broker Acordia Somerton, an insurance agent specializing in insurance for college students, CSUN endorses Blue Cross as the main provider of student health insurance. The college administration needs to review its practice of doing business with this dubious corporation, which so blatantly disregards human life in favor of profit. Students should be presented a choice of an alternative insurance from a provider that is more ethical or, at least, does not systematically and illegally cancel insurance policies.
Such a policy is arguably hard to find. Most major health insurance providers in California have been sued in cases similar to those affecting Blue Cross and most operate on a for-profit basis, which means they actively avoid responsibility to pay up. To some extent, the problem is not simply with Blue Cross or any other for-profit health care provider, but with the overall lack of social responsibility among corporations within this capitalist society.
According to state law, fraud provides a legal basis for canceling coverage. All insurance companies review a policyholder's application once a claim has been made. However, a practice that was business as usual for Blue Cross of California was ruled to be repeated violations of state laws in the court decisions.
The Blue Cross scandal especially pertains to CSUN's international students, who are required to purchase a health insurance and handed the Acordia Somerton brochure during orientation. A majority of international students at CSUN buy their policy through Acordia Somerton, which offers only Blue Cross policies.
Although international students are not required to purchase their health insurance from Blue Cross, they need to show proof of insurance that meets specific minimum requirements. Consequently, out of convenience, the relatively low cost of the policy and the lack of presented choices, most international students choose to give their business to Blue Cross.
Amid mounting public criticism, Blue Cross has declared their intentions to reform their practices, but critics have dismissed those claims as being simply for show. The secret court settlements appear to be a way for the company to escape accountability and sweep the matter under the rug by paying off the plaintiffs with undisclosed settlements. The secret settlements benefit Blue Cross because the matter has received little public attention and there is little pressure on the company to reform its practices.
In an attempt to remake its tarnished image, Blue Cross of California hired Sitrick and Company, a successful PR firm specializing in crisis management for corporate wrongdoers including Halliburton and Exxon Mobile. Sitrick and Company focuses on the "difficult task of keeping clients out of the press," according to the company Web site. In the case of Blue Cross, this focus means restricting media attention surrounding the lawsuits and avoiding the risk that the court rulings set legal precedent, which would require industry-wide reforms.
CSUN should send a clear message to Blue Cross to change its wrongful practices. Students should respond by canceling their health insurance policies and taking their business elsewhere. As policyholders and customers, students inevitably support Blue Cross and its unethical practices.
Students and the college should seriously reconsider their support for a company that cares more about profit than it does for its responsibilities as a healthcare insurance provider. In the end, if a CSUN student turns to Blue Cross expecting them to take care of a $200,000 medical bill acquired during a time of crisis spent in a hospital bed, he or she might experience the additional pain when they realize that their policy was also cancelled because of corporate greed.
Originally published in the Daily Sundial on 11/08/06
Original URL
René Magritte's 'treacherous images' at LACMA
In a dreamy gallery environment turned upside down, carpeted with a blue sky dotted by puffy clouds and decked with freeway intersections on the ceiling, Belgian surrealist René Magritte's work is playfully featured in a current exhibit that looks at the pop-culture icon's impact on American and European post-war artists.
As visitors enter the exhibit at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, they are greeted by security guards wearing black bowler hats and proceed to walk through a tall ghostly silhouette cutout in the doorway leading into the gallery. The show's interior, a playful mix of Magritte-like dreamscape and post-modern art installation, was designed by Los Angeles-based artist John Baldessari, who also has two works featured in the show.
"Magritte and Contemporary Art: The Treachery of Images" includes 68 works by Magritte and an equal number of works by 31 contemporary artists, cleverly juxtaposed against Magritte to illuminate lines of influence.
The exhibit is not intended to be a Magritte retrospective, which there have been numerous examples of, but instead a fresh look at Magritte's work in conjunction with contemporary artists who were inspired by him, according to Stephanie Barron, senior curator at LACMA. Barron created the show together with Michel Draguet, director of the Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique in Belgium, in cooperation with the Magritte Foundation.
The unique exhibit, which does not travel, takes a first look at the artist's influence on a diverse group of contemporary artists from pop artists Andy Warhol and Ed Ruscha to avant-garde artist Jeff Koons and neo-Dadaist Jasper Johns.
"I tried to think as Magritte might," said Baldessari, a conceptual artist who teaches at UCLA and was chosen to design the exhibit because of his combined playfulness and seriousness. "I think this is something (Magritte) would have done, or agreed with."
The exhibition was named after Magritte's most famous work, which is also the centerpiece in the show. In the famous 1929 painting of a pipe accompanied by "Ceci n'est pas une pipe," a phrase in French meaning "This is not a pipe," Magritte showed the inherent fallacy of assigning names to objects. Combining random words with images was a common theme in Magritte's work. He created conscious contradictions to question the pre-assumption that words which are used to name things actually correspond with the object itself.
"I can never decide what is more important, a word or an image," said Baldessari, who said that designing the show was a challenge, because he wanted to emphasize the work of the Magritte without taking center stage himself.
"Artists have some of the greatest insights into art," said Michael Govan, director and CEO of LACMA.
Magritte, who died in 1968, was one of the most memorable members of the surrealist movement during and beyond the Interwar period and his easily recognizable style has permeated such pop culture domains as music, advertising, cartoons and film.
The surrealist qualities in Magritte's work derive from his warping of scale, time and space. While painting in a convincing style, Magritte lends imagery from the unconscious, an apparent influence of psychoanalysis, and from his own bourgeois society. Magritte was known as a businessman who always wore a three-piece suit and approached painting like a business operation.
"Magritte was a total bourgeois on the outside," Draguet said. "(But) he was a total anarchist on the inside."
The show, which opened Nov. 19, will be up through March 4, 2007 and is specially ticketed. Weekday tickets are $17 for adults and $14 for students and seniors. On weekends, tickets are $20 for adults and $17 for seniors and students. Admission is free for children 17 and under. For an extra $4-7, visitors can take a headset audio tour narrated by Pierce Brosnan, featuring interviews with some of the artists.
Originally published in the Daily Sundial on 11/22/06
Original URL
As visitors enter the exhibit at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, they are greeted by security guards wearing black bowler hats and proceed to walk through a tall ghostly silhouette cutout in the doorway leading into the gallery. The show's interior, a playful mix of Magritte-like dreamscape and post-modern art installation, was designed by Los Angeles-based artist John Baldessari, who also has two works featured in the show.
"Magritte and Contemporary Art: The Treachery of Images" includes 68 works by Magritte and an equal number of works by 31 contemporary artists, cleverly juxtaposed against Magritte to illuminate lines of influence.
The exhibit is not intended to be a Magritte retrospective, which there have been numerous examples of, but instead a fresh look at Magritte's work in conjunction with contemporary artists who were inspired by him, according to Stephanie Barron, senior curator at LACMA. Barron created the show together with Michel Draguet, director of the Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique in Belgium, in cooperation with the Magritte Foundation.
The unique exhibit, which does not travel, takes a first look at the artist's influence on a diverse group of contemporary artists from pop artists Andy Warhol and Ed Ruscha to avant-garde artist Jeff Koons and neo-Dadaist Jasper Johns.
"I tried to think as Magritte might," said Baldessari, a conceptual artist who teaches at UCLA and was chosen to design the exhibit because of his combined playfulness and seriousness. "I think this is something (Magritte) would have done, or agreed with."
The exhibition was named after Magritte's most famous work, which is also the centerpiece in the show. In the famous 1929 painting of a pipe accompanied by "Ceci n'est pas une pipe," a phrase in French meaning "This is not a pipe," Magritte showed the inherent fallacy of assigning names to objects. Combining random words with images was a common theme in Magritte's work. He created conscious contradictions to question the pre-assumption that words which are used to name things actually correspond with the object itself.
"I can never decide what is more important, a word or an image," said Baldessari, who said that designing the show was a challenge, because he wanted to emphasize the work of the Magritte without taking center stage himself.
"Artists have some of the greatest insights into art," said Michael Govan, director and CEO of LACMA.
Magritte, who died in 1968, was one of the most memorable members of the surrealist movement during and beyond the Interwar period and his easily recognizable style has permeated such pop culture domains as music, advertising, cartoons and film.
The surrealist qualities in Magritte's work derive from his warping of scale, time and space. While painting in a convincing style, Magritte lends imagery from the unconscious, an apparent influence of psychoanalysis, and from his own bourgeois society. Magritte was known as a businessman who always wore a three-piece suit and approached painting like a business operation.
"Magritte was a total bourgeois on the outside," Draguet said. "(But) he was a total anarchist on the inside."
The show, which opened Nov. 19, will be up through March 4, 2007 and is specially ticketed. Weekday tickets are $17 for adults and $14 for students and seniors. On weekends, tickets are $20 for adults and $17 for seniors and students. Admission is free for children 17 and under. For an extra $4-7, visitors can take a headset audio tour narrated by Pierce Brosnan, featuring interviews with some of the artists.
Originally published in the Daily Sundial on 11/22/06
Original URL
Business mixes with pleasure in Second Life: Virtual world offers educational opportunities
The latest online phenomenon is the much-hyped virtual world Second Life, a vibrant social outlet that resembles a mixture between a happy version of the Matrix and the networking site Myspace.com. Second Life has attracted the interest of millions of people around the world, including educators, corporations, artists and entrepreneurs, who help create a parallel universe, which may revolutionize the Internet.
Second Life is a 3-D virtual world where users can navigate, explore and interact with ever-changing environments created by its residents. The idea behind Second Life is similar to the open-source experiments, such as the online encyclopedia Wikipedia, where the users create the content. In Second Life, the communal aspects of open-source come to life in a science fiction inspired world experienced through the first-person perspective.
What makes Second Life different from other online virtual worlds like the more popular World of Warcraft or The Sims Online, is the absence of a plot or a mission. Second Life is a platform on which the users, called avatars, can build and create whatever their imagination allows them to, as long as they abide by the rules of conduct.
The result is a libertarian's paradise. In this anarchic world created by freethinkers, avatars can socialize, buy and sell a variety of commodities, enjoy a variety of performances, listen to lectures and much more. Launched in June 2003 by San Francisco-based creator Linden Lab, Second Life has become the next big thing on the Internet and the population, now at about 1,775,000 members, is growing at a rate of 30 percent per month.
Educators have begun to see the potential of Second Life as an environment where students can try things that would not be possible or even appropriate in the classroom. More than 54 colleges and universities in the United States, plus numerous other educational organizations, are using Second Life as an educational venue.
In an effort to stimulate education in Second Life, Linden Lab offers educators a free plot of land for one semester to try it out. Teachers can design their dream classroom and if they want the lectures to be private they can purchase a private island where access can be restricted to students in the class.
Education in Second Life could give a voice to shy students, by eliminating the stage fright many feel when confronted with speaking in front of a large group.
"Students who don't talk in class would be more likely to speak out," said Harvey Rich, a CSUN sociology professor. "The anonymity factor is huge in the virtual world."
Incorporating new technology like Second Life in education would require technical training support to faculty and students.
"There are old-guard faculty here who don't even use e-mail," Rich said, who argued that new faculty members are more likely to be early adopters of Second Life. "Cyberspace has already had a huge impact on how CSUN does business."
In Second Life, the same economic principles apply as in the real world. The currency, called Linden Dollars, can be converted to real world currency on the currency exchange market at a rate of about $270 Linden to US $1. On Dec. 3, Linden Lab reported that a total of US $655,613 changed hands in Second Life during a 24-hour cycle.
Linden Lab recently announced that Anshe Chung, a German entrepreneur whose real name is Ailin Graef, was the first person to make more than US $1 million entirely in Second Life. Chung, and others like her, have cashed in on Second Life's booming real-estate market. Chung also owns several virtual shopping malls and stores as well as virtual company stock.
Linden Lab takes a hands-off approach in maintaining Second Life. The only requirements are that users pay the membership fees and follow some basic rules of conduct. Violating the rules can get a user suspended or expelled from Second Life. Violations include acts of intolerance, harassment, assault, indecency, but also disclosure of other peoples private information and disturbing the peace.
Basic membership is free, but members pay a land use fee of $9.95 per month for the right to own property plus an additional fee based on land holdings exceeding 512 square meters. Initially, there were talks of a Second Life-tax, but that idea was scrapped because it proved to be unacceptable to residents. If earnings made in Second Life are converted to USD, that money is subject to taxation and must be reported as income.
About 220,000 residents logged in during the last week of November and there are usually between 10,000 to 20,000 residents logged in. The typical Second Life avatar is 32 years old, male or female and what advertisers classify as an early adopter of new technologies.
Second Life offers almost endless numbers of opportunities, but it takes new residents some time to familiarize with the environment. Creating, designing and building in Second Life requires some programming know-how and is done using special software. A creation is automatically copyright protected and belongs to the creator, who often offers to sell the product to other residents.
Products and services offered for sale include personal beautification, clothing, cars and other vehicles, real estate, concert tickets, music, consultant work, as well as more seedy services like lap-dances and sexual favors. Note that in order to fully enjoy the carnal pleasures of Second Life, users need to purchase external genitals.
In October, Reuters became the first news service to assign a full-time reporter to cover Second Life. The beat-reporter Adam Reuters, whose real name is Adam Pasick, is guaranteed to keep busy covering a vast amount of happenings and news developments in Second Life.
Many major corporations have entered Second Life in the hopes of developing potential markets and receive some free publicity. The cost of developing business in Second Life is minimal and companies can sell and promote products to residents.
Linden Lab has also created Teen Second Life, a PG-version of the adult world exclusively for users ages 13-17. The only other people allowed into Teen Second Life are Linden Lab Staff, Linden liaisons, who are there to ensure a safe environment, and educators, who are restricted to designated education islands.
Second Life requires a broadband Internet connection. Access to high-speed Internet is a social class issue that has largely replaced the older socio-economic issue of access to a computer.
"The obstacle here is that (there are) students who commute and don't have access to a computer at home," Rich said. "If you expect students to be available for a 10 p.m. chat or to be online four times a week, that could be a problem if they don't have high-speed Internet access."
Originally published in the Daily Sundial on 12/06/06
Original URL
Second Life is a 3-D virtual world where users can navigate, explore and interact with ever-changing environments created by its residents. The idea behind Second Life is similar to the open-source experiments, such as the online encyclopedia Wikipedia, where the users create the content. In Second Life, the communal aspects of open-source come to life in a science fiction inspired world experienced through the first-person perspective.
What makes Second Life different from other online virtual worlds like the more popular World of Warcraft or The Sims Online, is the absence of a plot or a mission. Second Life is a platform on which the users, called avatars, can build and create whatever their imagination allows them to, as long as they abide by the rules of conduct.
The result is a libertarian's paradise. In this anarchic world created by freethinkers, avatars can socialize, buy and sell a variety of commodities, enjoy a variety of performances, listen to lectures and much more. Launched in June 2003 by San Francisco-based creator Linden Lab, Second Life has become the next big thing on the Internet and the population, now at about 1,775,000 members, is growing at a rate of 30 percent per month.
Educators have begun to see the potential of Second Life as an environment where students can try things that would not be possible or even appropriate in the classroom. More than 54 colleges and universities in the United States, plus numerous other educational organizations, are using Second Life as an educational venue.
In an effort to stimulate education in Second Life, Linden Lab offers educators a free plot of land for one semester to try it out. Teachers can design their dream classroom and if they want the lectures to be private they can purchase a private island where access can be restricted to students in the class.
Education in Second Life could give a voice to shy students, by eliminating the stage fright many feel when confronted with speaking in front of a large group.
"Students who don't talk in class would be more likely to speak out," said Harvey Rich, a CSUN sociology professor. "The anonymity factor is huge in the virtual world."
Incorporating new technology like Second Life in education would require technical training support to faculty and students.
"There are old-guard faculty here who don't even use e-mail," Rich said, who argued that new faculty members are more likely to be early adopters of Second Life. "Cyberspace has already had a huge impact on how CSUN does business."
In Second Life, the same economic principles apply as in the real world. The currency, called Linden Dollars, can be converted to real world currency on the currency exchange market at a rate of about $270 Linden to US $1. On Dec. 3, Linden Lab reported that a total of US $655,613 changed hands in Second Life during a 24-hour cycle.
Linden Lab recently announced that Anshe Chung, a German entrepreneur whose real name is Ailin Graef, was the first person to make more than US $1 million entirely in Second Life. Chung, and others like her, have cashed in on Second Life's booming real-estate market. Chung also owns several virtual shopping malls and stores as well as virtual company stock.
Linden Lab takes a hands-off approach in maintaining Second Life. The only requirements are that users pay the membership fees and follow some basic rules of conduct. Violating the rules can get a user suspended or expelled from Second Life. Violations include acts of intolerance, harassment, assault, indecency, but also disclosure of other peoples private information and disturbing the peace.
Basic membership is free, but members pay a land use fee of $9.95 per month for the right to own property plus an additional fee based on land holdings exceeding 512 square meters. Initially, there were talks of a Second Life-tax, but that idea was scrapped because it proved to be unacceptable to residents. If earnings made in Second Life are converted to USD, that money is subject to taxation and must be reported as income.
About 220,000 residents logged in during the last week of November and there are usually between 10,000 to 20,000 residents logged in. The typical Second Life avatar is 32 years old, male or female and what advertisers classify as an early adopter of new technologies.
Second Life offers almost endless numbers of opportunities, but it takes new residents some time to familiarize with the environment. Creating, designing and building in Second Life requires some programming know-how and is done using special software. A creation is automatically copyright protected and belongs to the creator, who often offers to sell the product to other residents.
Products and services offered for sale include personal beautification, clothing, cars and other vehicles, real estate, concert tickets, music, consultant work, as well as more seedy services like lap-dances and sexual favors. Note that in order to fully enjoy the carnal pleasures of Second Life, users need to purchase external genitals.
In October, Reuters became the first news service to assign a full-time reporter to cover Second Life. The beat-reporter Adam Reuters, whose real name is Adam Pasick, is guaranteed to keep busy covering a vast amount of happenings and news developments in Second Life.
Many major corporations have entered Second Life in the hopes of developing potential markets and receive some free publicity. The cost of developing business in Second Life is minimal and companies can sell and promote products to residents.
Linden Lab has also created Teen Second Life, a PG-version of the adult world exclusively for users ages 13-17. The only other people allowed into Teen Second Life are Linden Lab Staff, Linden liaisons, who are there to ensure a safe environment, and educators, who are restricted to designated education islands.
Second Life requires a broadband Internet connection. Access to high-speed Internet is a social class issue that has largely replaced the older socio-economic issue of access to a computer.
"The obstacle here is that (there are) students who commute and don't have access to a computer at home," Rich said. "If you expect students to be available for a 10 p.m. chat or to be online four times a week, that could be a problem if they don't have high-speed Internet access."
Originally published in the Daily Sundial on 12/06/06
Original URL
Starting professor pay varies greatly at CSUs
Salaries can differ by as much as $30,000
Entry-level salaries for tenure-track professors in different disciplines at CSUN vary by as much as $30,000, the 2005-2006 salary report suggests, a trend that reflects market forces largely outside of the university's control. Accounting, business, economics and mechanical engineering are among the highest paying disciplines, whereas faculty in the humanities and ethnic studies programs are among the lowest paid.
"What are rewarded are scarce skills," said Shirley Svorny, professor and chair of the economics department. "(Being a professor) is not something you do because you are seriously materialistic."
In accordance with job market forces of supply and demand, the wage-value of a Ph.D. is determined by its scarcity. At CSUN, tenure-track accounting professors, a scarce group, are paid between $83,500 and $126,000 per year, whereas English tenure-track professors, who are plentiful in numbers, get paid between $52,500 and $91,400 yearly. Tenure-track faculty are assistant, associate and tenure professors, which are hired in full-time positions.
"I never took this job for the money in the first place. There are other reasons to work here," said Cheryl Spector, an English professor who has been working at CSUN for 20 years. "Worth and value are problematic terms because there is not an exact correlation between the work that you do and how you are rewarded."
For reasons that are obvious in a capitalist market economy, educated number crunchers or sophisticated business managers are more valued than French literature professors or ethnic studies scholars.
Differences in salaries between and within departments are both legal and legitimate as long as they are objectively determined, said Carol Docan, a CSUN business law professor. In addition to market forces, factors that determine entry-level salaries are educational background, including where the degree was obtained, published scholarship and work experience. Factors that are illegal to consider when determining wages are gender, race, religious beliefs, nation of origin, sexual preferences, marital or family status, medical conditions and age. Most experts would agree, however, that these factors often continue to be the basis for discrimination in hiring.
The California Faculty Association has taken issue with the California State University system in regards to the salary system, which they perceive as unfair because it does not reward faculty with wage increases. Another issue brought up by the CFA in recent and ongoing negotiations with the CSU administration is salary compression and inversion. Salary compression is when junior faculty is bumped up to the same wage bracket as more senior faculty, discounting the latter's entitlement to a higher wage based on more years at the job. Salary inversion is when newly hired professors start at entry-level salaries higher than that of senior faculty of the same rank.
Salary compression and inversion are terms used to describe different effects of a salary system that is designed to give tenure-track faculty a raise periodically, with each transition from assistant to associate to tenured professors.
"The (CSU) salary system is broken and the evidence is the extensive compression and inversion problems that we see across the systems," said James Ballard, associate professor of sociology and president of CSUN's CFA chapter. "CSU is not interested in dealing with inversion."
The CFA is working toward collective salary increases for faculty, which they argue are needed to meet rising cost of living and to adjust for a rising level of inflation. The effects of salary inversion and stagnated faculty salaries are twofold. It affects the university's ability to keep good employees and it demoralizes faculty, Ballard said.
"The bottom line is that there are faculty that can't pay their bills so they leave," said Ballard, who pointed out that CSUN have lost faculty due to insufficient wages.
"Having people leave is not a sign of a broken system," Svorny said. "(CSUN) should be hiring people who are great and have the option to leave."
"I agree with the CFA that (salary compression and inversion) is a problem," said Harry Hellenbrand, Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs. "But then we all must agree that capitalism and not CSUN is the root cause."
Staying competitive with private educational institutions, which usually offer faculty higher salaries, remains a challenge for universities in the CSU system. However, the CSU system, the nation's largest public university system with more than 450,000 students on 23 campuses, is a fairly stable institution that offers faculty better job security than in the private sector. Other perks offered by the CSU are beneficial pension savings and health benefits, which are both valuable aspects of employment that professors take into account when choosing between the private and the public sector.
"CSU is cannibalizing itself by failing to have a rational salary system," Ballard said. "We believe they should offer decent wages that support a middle-class lifestyle."
"We try to advance the salaries of people, especially junior faculty who have been significantly leapfrogged over by more recent hires," Hellenbrand said. "Over the past year, we have upped the salaries of nearly 90 faculty, for a total of $370,000. This means we will hire six fewer people (because) this money has to come from somewhere."
The CFA argues that compression, inversion and the absence of raises or prospects thereof demoralizes faculty because there is a lack of incentives to work harder and further the quality of the education programs.
"Everybody is unhappy and (wants) change, except those who are paid top dollars," Spector said. "(There are) systematic inequalities because there is not enough money to move everybody up."
"A lot of faculty are demoralized," said Svorny, who according to the salary report makes almost $40,000 more per year than Spector. "They feel entitled to things and if that is how you look at the world, you will be demoralized."
Originally published in the Daily Sundial on 12/14/06
Original URL
Entry-level salaries for tenure-track professors in different disciplines at CSUN vary by as much as $30,000, the 2005-2006 salary report suggests, a trend that reflects market forces largely outside of the university's control. Accounting, business, economics and mechanical engineering are among the highest paying disciplines, whereas faculty in the humanities and ethnic studies programs are among the lowest paid.
"What are rewarded are scarce skills," said Shirley Svorny, professor and chair of the economics department. "(Being a professor) is not something you do because you are seriously materialistic."
In accordance with job market forces of supply and demand, the wage-value of a Ph.D. is determined by its scarcity. At CSUN, tenure-track accounting professors, a scarce group, are paid between $83,500 and $126,000 per year, whereas English tenure-track professors, who are plentiful in numbers, get paid between $52,500 and $91,400 yearly. Tenure-track faculty are assistant, associate and tenure professors, which are hired in full-time positions.
"I never took this job for the money in the first place. There are other reasons to work here," said Cheryl Spector, an English professor who has been working at CSUN for 20 years. "Worth and value are problematic terms because there is not an exact correlation between the work that you do and how you are rewarded."
For reasons that are obvious in a capitalist market economy, educated number crunchers or sophisticated business managers are more valued than French literature professors or ethnic studies scholars.
Differences in salaries between and within departments are both legal and legitimate as long as they are objectively determined, said Carol Docan, a CSUN business law professor. In addition to market forces, factors that determine entry-level salaries are educational background, including where the degree was obtained, published scholarship and work experience. Factors that are illegal to consider when determining wages are gender, race, religious beliefs, nation of origin, sexual preferences, marital or family status, medical conditions and age. Most experts would agree, however, that these factors often continue to be the basis for discrimination in hiring.
The California Faculty Association has taken issue with the California State University system in regards to the salary system, which they perceive as unfair because it does not reward faculty with wage increases. Another issue brought up by the CFA in recent and ongoing negotiations with the CSU administration is salary compression and inversion. Salary compression is when junior faculty is bumped up to the same wage bracket as more senior faculty, discounting the latter's entitlement to a higher wage based on more years at the job. Salary inversion is when newly hired professors start at entry-level salaries higher than that of senior faculty of the same rank.
Salary compression and inversion are terms used to describe different effects of a salary system that is designed to give tenure-track faculty a raise periodically, with each transition from assistant to associate to tenured professors.
"The (CSU) salary system is broken and the evidence is the extensive compression and inversion problems that we see across the systems," said James Ballard, associate professor of sociology and president of CSUN's CFA chapter. "CSU is not interested in dealing with inversion."
The CFA is working toward collective salary increases for faculty, which they argue are needed to meet rising cost of living and to adjust for a rising level of inflation. The effects of salary inversion and stagnated faculty salaries are twofold. It affects the university's ability to keep good employees and it demoralizes faculty, Ballard said.
"The bottom line is that there are faculty that can't pay their bills so they leave," said Ballard, who pointed out that CSUN have lost faculty due to insufficient wages.
"Having people leave is not a sign of a broken system," Svorny said. "(CSUN) should be hiring people who are great and have the option to leave."
"I agree with the CFA that (salary compression and inversion) is a problem," said Harry Hellenbrand, Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs. "But then we all must agree that capitalism and not CSUN is the root cause."
Staying competitive with private educational institutions, which usually offer faculty higher salaries, remains a challenge for universities in the CSU system. However, the CSU system, the nation's largest public university system with more than 450,000 students on 23 campuses, is a fairly stable institution that offers faculty better job security than in the private sector. Other perks offered by the CSU are beneficial pension savings and health benefits, which are both valuable aspects of employment that professors take into account when choosing between the private and the public sector.
"CSU is cannibalizing itself by failing to have a rational salary system," Ballard said. "We believe they should offer decent wages that support a middle-class lifestyle."
"We try to advance the salaries of people, especially junior faculty who have been significantly leapfrogged over by more recent hires," Hellenbrand said. "Over the past year, we have upped the salaries of nearly 90 faculty, for a total of $370,000. This means we will hire six fewer people (because) this money has to come from somewhere."
The CFA argues that compression, inversion and the absence of raises or prospects thereof demoralizes faculty because there is a lack of incentives to work harder and further the quality of the education programs.
"Everybody is unhappy and (wants) change, except those who are paid top dollars," Spector said. "(There are) systematic inequalities because there is not enough money to move everybody up."
"A lot of faculty are demoralized," said Svorny, who according to the salary report makes almost $40,000 more per year than Spector. "They feel entitled to things and if that is how you look at the world, you will be demoralized."
Originally published in the Daily Sundial on 12/14/06
Original URL
Grade inflation rife on campus: Students getting more As than Cs
In 2004, CSUN instructors assigned twice as many As as Cs in upper division classes. The overall percentage of A grades at CSUN increases every year, which does not necessarily mean students are performing better. On the contrary, it gives cause to believe that academic standards are being lowered.
CSUN faculty has a reason to be concerned about widespread grade inflation, based on information from a recently published report by the CSUN Council of Chairs, which takes the first comprehensive look at grade distribution data at CSUN from 1990 to 2004. According to the study, the percentages of high grades have increased steadily at different rates in most college departments during the 16 year period.
In 2004, 36 percent of upper division grades were either As or A minuses, up 7 percent since 1990. Percentages of upper division B and C grades decreased from 34 and 21 percent in 1990 to 32 and 19 percent in 2004, respectively. D and F grades constituted less than 5 percent each.
"D is a passing grade and (instructors) are not using it," said Shirley Svorny, professor and chair of the economics department, who was one of three CSUN faculty members involved in the study. "We want to encourage people to take a look at grading practices."
The report found significant variations between different college departments. The departments in the Arts, Media and Communication college, which has a small enrollment, have seen their combined percentages of A and A-minus grades increase from 18 percent in 1997 to 74 percent in 2004.
A few departments show a decrease in the percentage of A grades, particularly in the College of Business and Economics Administration. In the lower division classes, the Business and Economics college has had a decrease in the percentages of A and A-minus grades from 28 percent in 1998 to 5 percent in 2004.
While six out of eight colleges are mentioned as having increasing percentages of A grades, without identifying them, the report points to two colleges as having significantly more As in 2004 than in 1990. Colleges with large increases in lower division A grades were Humanities and Arts, Media and Communication.
The report avoids identifying colleges and departments by name and does not assign blame. It simply suggests that each department should review its own grading practices.
"The numbers indicate that there is grade inflation," Svorny said. "We don't want to take the position that there is a problem."
As a summary, the report concludes that grade inflation is slow and takes place gradually over time. The changes are significant, however, when looking at longer time period.
The issue of grade inflation is nothing new and periodically appears within public discourse. As an academic phenomenon, grade inflation was first examined in the 1970s. During the Vietnam War, students could be exempted from the military draft if they had high grades. Many professors felt compelled to spare students from being drafted by assigning higher grades.
"Once grade inflation is established it's hard to get rid of because everybody likes (high grades), including students, their parents and the administration," said Harvey Mansfield, a government professor at Harvard University and one of the nation's leading critics of grade inflation.
The reason colleges should be concerned with grade inflation has to do with academic standards and the value of a college degree in the eyes of employers, graduate schools and law schools.
To prove grade inflation - rising grades without a corresponding rise in academic achievement - critics must demonstrate that students are not performing better than before, something that is difficult to prove. However, there is not much evidence indicating that today's students enter college better prepared than their predecessors.
"The effect for employers is that they can't trust the accuracy of an institution's grades," said James Sefton, a CSUN history professor who volunteered to work on the report. "The value of a degree is dependent on the reputation of an institution."
Grade inflation affects all colleges, including the Ivy Leagues.
"It's bad for the morale of the faculty," said Mansfield, who teaches political philosophy at Harvard, where A grades are about 50 percent. "The purpose of education should be to help (students) find out what they are good at. Grade inflation gets in the way of that self-knowledge."
The report avoids presenting grade inflation as a serious problem but acknowledges, among other things, that it could lead to a perception among freshmen that classes at CSUN are no more challenging than they are at a community college.
"When you give students the false impression that college is easy, you do more damage than good," Sefton said.
The study, entitled "Grade Inflation at California State University, Northridge 1990-2005: A First Look," does not compare CSUN to other colleges or identify any departments or faculty as examples of significant changes. The new report was concluded and approved in March by the Council of Chairs, but not released until August.
"The purpose for us was to look at ourselves," said Professor Peter Nwosu, communication department chair and executive chair of the Council of Chairs. "Before last year, we never had this discussion"
The report, which was distributed to all department chairs and posted on the Council of Chair Web site in August, is meant to open dialogue among faculty about their grading practices. The goal is to repeat the grade inflation study every three years.
Every year the department chairs receive grade distribution reports on their own faculty but they are not required to share the information within the department. Part of the report are directives to make sure that grade inflation is being talked about in the different departments and that the department chairs report back to the Council of Chair before the end of the academic year, according to Nwosu.
"Grade inflation is something that each department is going to have to think about on their own," Svorny said. "There is no recommendation except to try to encourage people within the department to try to pull together observations."
Except for a summary of grade distribution numbers, the main part of the report includes a list of factors that contribute to grade inflation and suggestions on how to combat them. The factors include an emphasis on graduation that leads to a hurried academic atmosphere, an inadequate emphasis on CSUN's academic standards to potential students, the use of Scantron exams, competition among departments and against community colleges for enrollments in lower division GE classes, and student complaints about grades and workload.
The report also points out that an increase in the reliance on part-time faculty, many of whom also teach at community colleges, has lowered academic standards. Furthermore, the report suggests that the university's policy of using student evaluations of instructors to determine tenure may influence grading decisions among junior-tenure track faculty because they are worried about what their students think of them.
Another contributing factor, not included in the report, is the notion that "the purpose of education is to promote the self-esteem of students," argues Mansfield. Instructors may be deterred from giving students bad grades because "it is such bad news."
"We did not look at the 'literature' when we did this report," said Sefton, who argued that to take a broad view of the problem encourages a brush-off approach, as grade inflation is a nationwide issue that affects all academic institutions.
According to Sefton, grade inflation is a manifestation of a consumerist education philosophy. The idea that education is a product, that degrees are entitlements and that the purpose of college is to provide services to students, who are customers, leads to an emphasis on graduation rates rather than academic standards.
"The university becomes Cal State Kmart instead of Cal State Northridge," Sefton said.
Grade inflation means, in a general sense, that grades have gotten too high and that set boundaries for grades have been exceeded. In a cautious and carefully worded statement, the report suggests that grade inflation is an issue that should be reviewed regularly by individual faculty and departments, because grading is faculty business.
The report also recommends that the college look at its graduation rate policies to make sure that academic standards have the "highest priority," and that tenure evaluations are based more on faculty peer review than on student evaluations.
Mansfield suggested a more drastic measure, not included in the report, involving a departmental grading quota, where the number of A grades available to students are limited to a quota shared by the entire department. In that case, if one professor gives too many A grades, other professors cannot assign as many.
Another possible solution would be to institute grading policies based on the bell curve, a general statistical model that illustrates how human abilities are distributed in the shape of a bell. Business, Administration and Economics is the only college whose grade distribution remotely resembles a bell curve. All other colleges have distribution curves with a downward slant from A at the top to F at the bottom.
"If you have an elite program, using the bell curve would not be appropriate," Svorny said. "In some cases it might be appropriate to use all As and Bs."
The report refutes the idea that the University should get involved in grading practices, something that can be perceived as serious impediments to faculty's academic freedom.
"We don't want quotas," Sefton said. "(Quotas) don't take into account classes that are exceptionally good or exceptionally bad."
The idea to put the class distribution percentages next to the grade on the official transcripts would give employers a better understanding of the grade dynamics. Grade distribution information could have a significant effect on grade policies, and is already being offered through Pick-a-Prof.com, a corporation which posts detailed information revealing individual faculty's grade practices for anyone to see. The corporation recently won a lawsuit against the CSU system in order to obtain the grade distribution information, which are public records.
"(Pick-a-Prof) raises some concerns of professors that students are just going to take the easy classes," said Karen Bragg, a spokesperson for the Texas-based Pick-a-Prof.
The availability for students to review instructors' grading practices could lead to either increased grade inflation, as more students enroll in "easy" A classes, or it could deem grade inflation less significant as employers and graduate schools adjust their requirements. Eventually, Pick-a-Prof could put pressure on departments to review their grading practices.
"We are being contacted by professors on different campuses saying, 'Please expand the information,'" Bragg said. "If there truly is a concern about grade inflation, why would this information being brought to light make it any worse?"
The next step in the Council of Chairs' effort to address grade inflation is a Nov. 14 meeting during which the authors of the report will discuss the issue with faculty.
"I don't think you can completely prevent grade inflation because there are too many factors," Sefton said. "But you can get a handle on it."
Originally published in the Daily Sundial on 11/14/06
Original URL
CSUN faculty has a reason to be concerned about widespread grade inflation, based on information from a recently published report by the CSUN Council of Chairs, which takes the first comprehensive look at grade distribution data at CSUN from 1990 to 2004. According to the study, the percentages of high grades have increased steadily at different rates in most college departments during the 16 year period.
In 2004, 36 percent of upper division grades were either As or A minuses, up 7 percent since 1990. Percentages of upper division B and C grades decreased from 34 and 21 percent in 1990 to 32 and 19 percent in 2004, respectively. D and F grades constituted less than 5 percent each.
"D is a passing grade and (instructors) are not using it," said Shirley Svorny, professor and chair of the economics department, who was one of three CSUN faculty members involved in the study. "We want to encourage people to take a look at grading practices."
The report found significant variations between different college departments. The departments in the Arts, Media and Communication college, which has a small enrollment, have seen their combined percentages of A and A-minus grades increase from 18 percent in 1997 to 74 percent in 2004.
A few departments show a decrease in the percentage of A grades, particularly in the College of Business and Economics Administration. In the lower division classes, the Business and Economics college has had a decrease in the percentages of A and A-minus grades from 28 percent in 1998 to 5 percent in 2004.
While six out of eight colleges are mentioned as having increasing percentages of A grades, without identifying them, the report points to two colleges as having significantly more As in 2004 than in 1990. Colleges with large increases in lower division A grades were Humanities and Arts, Media and Communication.
The report avoids identifying colleges and departments by name and does not assign blame. It simply suggests that each department should review its own grading practices.
"The numbers indicate that there is grade inflation," Svorny said. "We don't want to take the position that there is a problem."
As a summary, the report concludes that grade inflation is slow and takes place gradually over time. The changes are significant, however, when looking at longer time period.
The issue of grade inflation is nothing new and periodically appears within public discourse. As an academic phenomenon, grade inflation was first examined in the 1970s. During the Vietnam War, students could be exempted from the military draft if they had high grades. Many professors felt compelled to spare students from being drafted by assigning higher grades.
"Once grade inflation is established it's hard to get rid of because everybody likes (high grades), including students, their parents and the administration," said Harvey Mansfield, a government professor at Harvard University and one of the nation's leading critics of grade inflation.
The reason colleges should be concerned with grade inflation has to do with academic standards and the value of a college degree in the eyes of employers, graduate schools and law schools.
To prove grade inflation - rising grades without a corresponding rise in academic achievement - critics must demonstrate that students are not performing better than before, something that is difficult to prove. However, there is not much evidence indicating that today's students enter college better prepared than their predecessors.
"The effect for employers is that they can't trust the accuracy of an institution's grades," said James Sefton, a CSUN history professor who volunteered to work on the report. "The value of a degree is dependent on the reputation of an institution."
Grade inflation affects all colleges, including the Ivy Leagues.
"It's bad for the morale of the faculty," said Mansfield, who teaches political philosophy at Harvard, where A grades are about 50 percent. "The purpose of education should be to help (students) find out what they are good at. Grade inflation gets in the way of that self-knowledge."
The report avoids presenting grade inflation as a serious problem but acknowledges, among other things, that it could lead to a perception among freshmen that classes at CSUN are no more challenging than they are at a community college.
"When you give students the false impression that college is easy, you do more damage than good," Sefton said.
The study, entitled "Grade Inflation at California State University, Northridge 1990-2005: A First Look," does not compare CSUN to other colleges or identify any departments or faculty as examples of significant changes. The new report was concluded and approved in March by the Council of Chairs, but not released until August.
"The purpose for us was to look at ourselves," said Professor Peter Nwosu, communication department chair and executive chair of the Council of Chairs. "Before last year, we never had this discussion"
The report, which was distributed to all department chairs and posted on the Council of Chair Web site in August, is meant to open dialogue among faculty about their grading practices. The goal is to repeat the grade inflation study every three years.
Every year the department chairs receive grade distribution reports on their own faculty but they are not required to share the information within the department. Part of the report are directives to make sure that grade inflation is being talked about in the different departments and that the department chairs report back to the Council of Chair before the end of the academic year, according to Nwosu.
"Grade inflation is something that each department is going to have to think about on their own," Svorny said. "There is no recommendation except to try to encourage people within the department to try to pull together observations."
Except for a summary of grade distribution numbers, the main part of the report includes a list of factors that contribute to grade inflation and suggestions on how to combat them. The factors include an emphasis on graduation that leads to a hurried academic atmosphere, an inadequate emphasis on CSUN's academic standards to potential students, the use of Scantron exams, competition among departments and against community colleges for enrollments in lower division GE classes, and student complaints about grades and workload.
The report also points out that an increase in the reliance on part-time faculty, many of whom also teach at community colleges, has lowered academic standards. Furthermore, the report suggests that the university's policy of using student evaluations of instructors to determine tenure may influence grading decisions among junior-tenure track faculty because they are worried about what their students think of them.
Another contributing factor, not included in the report, is the notion that "the purpose of education is to promote the self-esteem of students," argues Mansfield. Instructors may be deterred from giving students bad grades because "it is such bad news."
"We did not look at the 'literature' when we did this report," said Sefton, who argued that to take a broad view of the problem encourages a brush-off approach, as grade inflation is a nationwide issue that affects all academic institutions.
According to Sefton, grade inflation is a manifestation of a consumerist education philosophy. The idea that education is a product, that degrees are entitlements and that the purpose of college is to provide services to students, who are customers, leads to an emphasis on graduation rates rather than academic standards.
"The university becomes Cal State Kmart instead of Cal State Northridge," Sefton said.
Grade inflation means, in a general sense, that grades have gotten too high and that set boundaries for grades have been exceeded. In a cautious and carefully worded statement, the report suggests that grade inflation is an issue that should be reviewed regularly by individual faculty and departments, because grading is faculty business.
The report also recommends that the college look at its graduation rate policies to make sure that academic standards have the "highest priority," and that tenure evaluations are based more on faculty peer review than on student evaluations.
Mansfield suggested a more drastic measure, not included in the report, involving a departmental grading quota, where the number of A grades available to students are limited to a quota shared by the entire department. In that case, if one professor gives too many A grades, other professors cannot assign as many.
Another possible solution would be to institute grading policies based on the bell curve, a general statistical model that illustrates how human abilities are distributed in the shape of a bell. Business, Administration and Economics is the only college whose grade distribution remotely resembles a bell curve. All other colleges have distribution curves with a downward slant from A at the top to F at the bottom.
"If you have an elite program, using the bell curve would not be appropriate," Svorny said. "In some cases it might be appropriate to use all As and Bs."
The report refutes the idea that the University should get involved in grading practices, something that can be perceived as serious impediments to faculty's academic freedom.
"We don't want quotas," Sefton said. "(Quotas) don't take into account classes that are exceptionally good or exceptionally bad."
The idea to put the class distribution percentages next to the grade on the official transcripts would give employers a better understanding of the grade dynamics. Grade distribution information could have a significant effect on grade policies, and is already being offered through Pick-a-Prof.com, a corporation which posts detailed information revealing individual faculty's grade practices for anyone to see. The corporation recently won a lawsuit against the CSU system in order to obtain the grade distribution information, which are public records.
"(Pick-a-Prof) raises some concerns of professors that students are just going to take the easy classes," said Karen Bragg, a spokesperson for the Texas-based Pick-a-Prof.
The availability for students to review instructors' grading practices could lead to either increased grade inflation, as more students enroll in "easy" A classes, or it could deem grade inflation less significant as employers and graduate schools adjust their requirements. Eventually, Pick-a-Prof could put pressure on departments to review their grading practices.
"We are being contacted by professors on different campuses saying, 'Please expand the information,'" Bragg said. "If there truly is a concern about grade inflation, why would this information being brought to light make it any worse?"
The next step in the Council of Chairs' effort to address grade inflation is a Nov. 14 meeting during which the authors of the report will discuss the issue with faculty.
"I don't think you can completely prevent grade inflation because there are too many factors," Sefton said. "But you can get a handle on it."
Originally published in the Daily Sundial on 11/14/06
Original URL
Swedish Ark's glam-rock gospel of love
Once in a while a band comes along that sweeps people off their feet through sheer talent and charisma. Swedish glam-rockers the Ark have attracted a small but religiously committed group of American fans who are sure to embrace "Prayer For the Weekend," their fourth album.
The Swedish glam-rock sextet have been churning out a string of hits and number-one albums since 2000 and have cult-like followings in many parts of Europe. With "Prayer For The Weekend," the Ark has moved beyond 1970s glam-rock influences and developed a more mature style of glam-disco, neatly steeped in a classic art deco design.
All 11 tracks on the album are written by lead singer Ola Salo, the flamboyant son of a priest, born and raised in Rottne, which is a small town in the foresty heartland of southern Sweden. Salo, 30, is a natural talent and performer who has sung in musicals and recently composed a symphonic poem for orchestra and choir entitled "Linnaeus Rex."
With the fourth album, the band has picked up the electronic dance thread, previously woven into the third album, and delivers a set of diverse sounds that sparkle with falsetto harmonies and clever musical arrangements.
The opening and title track, "Prayer for the Weekend," is an infectious disco-driven call to prayer that introduces a gospel theme that lasts throughout the album. The song extends words of caution to weekenders, people who work a nine-to-five job and get their emotional release through a weekend of excess partying, often with detrimental results. "Let's pray that the weekend won't kill us, babe," is one lyric.
"Worrying Kind" is a stomping pop song along the lines of the big glam sound of Roy Wood's Wizard. The song, which leads the listeners back to the early 1970s era of British glam-rock, was a perfect entry for the Eurovision Song Contest, an annual Europe-wide music contest mired with cheesiness. Performing "Worrying Kind," the Ark won the Swedish nomination and will compete in this year's Eurovision Song Contest, to be held in Helsinki on May 12. The contest captures the attention of millions of viewers, and success there has propelled many careers including that of ABBA, who debuted and won in 1974 with "Waterloo."
"Absolutely No Decorum" is the first single from the album and another compelling argument by Salo to live life to the fullest, avoid conformity and say whatever you like. The song is tied to a scandal caused by a now-infamous 9/11 joke Salo made during a performance at the opening ceremony for the new Swedish Embassy in Washington, D.C. in October 2006.
The inappropriateness of his joke, which generated laughter from the audience as well as public outrage and death threats, became apparent in the ensuing scandal that caused the band to apologize and cancel a planned U.S tour.
The danceable "Gimme Love," a beat-heavy gospel with heavenly harmonies is one of the album's highlights. "Oh Lord, I need your help now to feel love because I've forgotten how," sings Salo. The song's uplifting message of love concludes the album's religious theme. "Gimme Love" asks for the ability to love and give love like a messiah, and also comments on hostilities and bad vibes that surround us through "scrutinizers, brutalizers, hipster jerks and bad advisers."
"Prayer for the Weekend" is catchy pop at its best, a mix of smart humor and liberating sincerity. So far only available on import through Roxy Recordings, this one is still sure to excite a growing number of U.S. fans, and when the time comes, give the Ark a chance to salvage many more. There is still plenty of room here on the Ark.
Originally published in the Daily Sundial on 5/02/07
Original URL
The Swedish glam-rock sextet have been churning out a string of hits and number-one albums since 2000 and have cult-like followings in many parts of Europe. With "Prayer For The Weekend," the Ark has moved beyond 1970s glam-rock influences and developed a more mature style of glam-disco, neatly steeped in a classic art deco design.
All 11 tracks on the album are written by lead singer Ola Salo, the flamboyant son of a priest, born and raised in Rottne, which is a small town in the foresty heartland of southern Sweden. Salo, 30, is a natural talent and performer who has sung in musicals and recently composed a symphonic poem for orchestra and choir entitled "Linnaeus Rex."
With the fourth album, the band has picked up the electronic dance thread, previously woven into the third album, and delivers a set of diverse sounds that sparkle with falsetto harmonies and clever musical arrangements.
The opening and title track, "Prayer for the Weekend," is an infectious disco-driven call to prayer that introduces a gospel theme that lasts throughout the album. The song extends words of caution to weekenders, people who work a nine-to-five job and get their emotional release through a weekend of excess partying, often with detrimental results. "Let's pray that the weekend won't kill us, babe," is one lyric.
"Worrying Kind" is a stomping pop song along the lines of the big glam sound of Roy Wood's Wizard. The song, which leads the listeners back to the early 1970s era of British glam-rock, was a perfect entry for the Eurovision Song Contest, an annual Europe-wide music contest mired with cheesiness. Performing "Worrying Kind," the Ark won the Swedish nomination and will compete in this year's Eurovision Song Contest, to be held in Helsinki on May 12. The contest captures the attention of millions of viewers, and success there has propelled many careers including that of ABBA, who debuted and won in 1974 with "Waterloo."
"Absolutely No Decorum" is the first single from the album and another compelling argument by Salo to live life to the fullest, avoid conformity and say whatever you like. The song is tied to a scandal caused by a now-infamous 9/11 joke Salo made during a performance at the opening ceremony for the new Swedish Embassy in Washington, D.C. in October 2006.
The inappropriateness of his joke, which generated laughter from the audience as well as public outrage and death threats, became apparent in the ensuing scandal that caused the band to apologize and cancel a planned U.S tour.
The danceable "Gimme Love," a beat-heavy gospel with heavenly harmonies is one of the album's highlights. "Oh Lord, I need your help now to feel love because I've forgotten how," sings Salo. The song's uplifting message of love concludes the album's religious theme. "Gimme Love" asks for the ability to love and give love like a messiah, and also comments on hostilities and bad vibes that surround us through "scrutinizers, brutalizers, hipster jerks and bad advisers."
"Prayer for the Weekend" is catchy pop at its best, a mix of smart humor and liberating sincerity. So far only available on import through Roxy Recordings, this one is still sure to excite a growing number of U.S. fans, and when the time comes, give the Ark a chance to salvage many more. There is still plenty of room here on the Ark.
Originally published in the Daily Sundial on 5/02/07
Original URL
Another one bites the dust: Tower Records to close its doors
The iconic Tower Records is preparing to close its doors forever in Los Angeles and around the country in the continuing systematic shift of the music industry from high-priced music stores like Tower Records, Wherehouse Music and Sam Goody to online sales and large discount stores.
With posters and banners proclaiming "Everything Must Go" and "Sale on Everything," 89 Tower Records stores are being liquidated as the result of a bankruptcy buy-out.
On Aug. 30, the company declared its second bankruptcy in two years and was sold to a Woodland Hills-based liquidation firm in an Oct. 6 auction that involved multiple bidders.
The Great American Group bought Tower Records for $134.3 million and the next day started to dismantle all 89 stores of the West Sacramento-based record store chain. About 2,700 Tower Records employees will lose their jobs. The liquidation sales, which include store merchandise and equipment, started at 20 percent and will escalate weekly by 5 percent to a mid-December crescendo.
Tower Records attributes its financial problems to an overall decline in music sales, increase in online music sales, and the tough competition from discount stores such as Wal-Mart and Best Buy. The company has struggled financially for about 10 years and owes creditors about $200 million, according to the Great American Group.
"It's almost like the death of a generation," said Bo Fannon, a Northridge automotive technician by day and music manager by night. On a sunny Sunday afternoon, Fannon came to stock up on some 1970s-era rock music, but left empty-handed because he had expected to get a better deal than the 20 percent sale.
"I'm going to Wal-Mart," Fannon said. "Their selection is not as good but the prices are better."
Even with a 20 percent discount, many CDs at Tower Records are still priced above the main competitors. Because the big retailers carry mostly Top-25 mainstream artists and can sell large quantities of a title, they are able to negotiate favorable deals with distributors.
Tower Records was created by Russ Salomon in 1960 as a single record store and eventually grew to become a pioneering and acclaimed enterprise with stores in nine countries. Tower Records was the first record store to mimic the structure of a supermarket, with aisles of record racks, turnstiles and large quantities of records. Over the years, the company became an icon in the music retail business and was known for its innovative marketing methods, such as weekly in-store performances and murals of current album cover-art on the outside, commissioned to local artists by record labels.
"It's going to be a pretty big void once this place is gone," said Adam Stover, supervisor at the Northridge store. "If you want to find some obscure Japanese band, you're not going to find it at Best Buy."
A wide selection, from experimental rock to punk to classical music, was one of Tower Records' trademarks, along with their specialized staff expertise. Tower was one of few large music retailers that carried music catalogues of small independent record labels. Record companies such as these are finding it harder to survive and with the demise of Tower, the non-mainstream labels have lost an important partner.
With the Northridge Tower Records gone, its wide selection of music will not be as available in the vicinity. Record stores in Los Angeles, such as Aron's Records and Rhino Records, have met fates similar to Tower's. The music retail industry is undergoing a transformation and many stores struggle to survive in the tough competitive environment of discount stores, online music sales and illegal file sharing.
Tower Records was founded during the heyday of rock 'n' roll and catered to the baby boomers, an aging customer base which today purchases less music than the younger generation and who are often reluctant to buy music online.
"A lot of (our) loyal customers are from the older generation," Stover said.
Although Tower Records was known for its wide selection and knowledgeable staff, one of the chain store's downfalls was that it did not offer competitive prices.
"I'm fine with (Tower's demise), because the prices are a little steep," said Lori Furnier, a Granada Hills health information technician who has been shopping at the store since 1976 and recently bought a couple of ABBA CDs and some old movie titles on DVD. "(But) if I couldn't find something, I would find it at (Tower)."
Some customers were neither surprised nor saddened by the bankruptcy.
"It does not really make a difference to me," said Eric Smith, 26, who blows things up for a living in his work as a movie special effects technician. "The only reason I'm coming here is because they have a sale."
The Northridge store was filled with discount shoppers on a recent weekend and for the staff, which is still on payroll but is now employed by the Great American Group, the inevitable closing of the store was looming over them. Once the liquidation is completed, the young staff of about 20 will be laid off.
"I love it (here) because music is my life and here I'm surrounded by it," said Patty Arias, one of the youngest employees. She does visual merchandising and has worked there since February.
"I like it here, it's very chill," said Emin Obdalian, who is in charge of loss prevention. He sits at the door or patrols the store undercover to catch shoplifters and prosecute them. Obdalian will look for a similar job after December.
Most employees did not know about the company's financial situation until the bankruptcy was announced in August.
"As far as being a specialist, at this point I don't care anymore," said Stover, who loves his job. "I just want to get the last paycheck before Christmas and be out of here."
"A lot of people come and say 'I've been shopping here since I was little,'" Arias said. "I think it sucks."
Originally published in the Daily Sundial on 11/02/06
Original URL
With posters and banners proclaiming "Everything Must Go" and "Sale on Everything," 89 Tower Records stores are being liquidated as the result of a bankruptcy buy-out.
On Aug. 30, the company declared its second bankruptcy in two years and was sold to a Woodland Hills-based liquidation firm in an Oct. 6 auction that involved multiple bidders.
The Great American Group bought Tower Records for $134.3 million and the next day started to dismantle all 89 stores of the West Sacramento-based record store chain. About 2,700 Tower Records employees will lose their jobs. The liquidation sales, which include store merchandise and equipment, started at 20 percent and will escalate weekly by 5 percent to a mid-December crescendo.
Tower Records attributes its financial problems to an overall decline in music sales, increase in online music sales, and the tough competition from discount stores such as Wal-Mart and Best Buy. The company has struggled financially for about 10 years and owes creditors about $200 million, according to the Great American Group.
"It's almost like the death of a generation," said Bo Fannon, a Northridge automotive technician by day and music manager by night. On a sunny Sunday afternoon, Fannon came to stock up on some 1970s-era rock music, but left empty-handed because he had expected to get a better deal than the 20 percent sale.
"I'm going to Wal-Mart," Fannon said. "Their selection is not as good but the prices are better."
Even with a 20 percent discount, many CDs at Tower Records are still priced above the main competitors. Because the big retailers carry mostly Top-25 mainstream artists and can sell large quantities of a title, they are able to negotiate favorable deals with distributors.
Tower Records was created by Russ Salomon in 1960 as a single record store and eventually grew to become a pioneering and acclaimed enterprise with stores in nine countries. Tower Records was the first record store to mimic the structure of a supermarket, with aisles of record racks, turnstiles and large quantities of records. Over the years, the company became an icon in the music retail business and was known for its innovative marketing methods, such as weekly in-store performances and murals of current album cover-art on the outside, commissioned to local artists by record labels.
"It's going to be a pretty big void once this place is gone," said Adam Stover, supervisor at the Northridge store. "If you want to find some obscure Japanese band, you're not going to find it at Best Buy."
A wide selection, from experimental rock to punk to classical music, was one of Tower Records' trademarks, along with their specialized staff expertise. Tower was one of few large music retailers that carried music catalogues of small independent record labels. Record companies such as these are finding it harder to survive and with the demise of Tower, the non-mainstream labels have lost an important partner.
With the Northridge Tower Records gone, its wide selection of music will not be as available in the vicinity. Record stores in Los Angeles, such as Aron's Records and Rhino Records, have met fates similar to Tower's. The music retail industry is undergoing a transformation and many stores struggle to survive in the tough competitive environment of discount stores, online music sales and illegal file sharing.
Tower Records was founded during the heyday of rock 'n' roll and catered to the baby boomers, an aging customer base which today purchases less music than the younger generation and who are often reluctant to buy music online.
"A lot of (our) loyal customers are from the older generation," Stover said.
Although Tower Records was known for its wide selection and knowledgeable staff, one of the chain store's downfalls was that it did not offer competitive prices.
"I'm fine with (Tower's demise), because the prices are a little steep," said Lori Furnier, a Granada Hills health information technician who has been shopping at the store since 1976 and recently bought a couple of ABBA CDs and some old movie titles on DVD. "(But) if I couldn't find something, I would find it at (Tower)."
Some customers were neither surprised nor saddened by the bankruptcy.
"It does not really make a difference to me," said Eric Smith, 26, who blows things up for a living in his work as a movie special effects technician. "The only reason I'm coming here is because they have a sale."
The Northridge store was filled with discount shoppers on a recent weekend and for the staff, which is still on payroll but is now employed by the Great American Group, the inevitable closing of the store was looming over them. Once the liquidation is completed, the young staff of about 20 will be laid off.
"I love it (here) because music is my life and here I'm surrounded by it," said Patty Arias, one of the youngest employees. She does visual merchandising and has worked there since February.
"I like it here, it's very chill," said Emin Obdalian, who is in charge of loss prevention. He sits at the door or patrols the store undercover to catch shoplifters and prosecute them. Obdalian will look for a similar job after December.
Most employees did not know about the company's financial situation until the bankruptcy was announced in August.
"As far as being a specialist, at this point I don't care anymore," said Stover, who loves his job. "I just want to get the last paycheck before Christmas and be out of here."
"A lot of people come and say 'I've been shopping here since I was little,'" Arias said. "I think it sucks."
Originally published in the Daily Sundial on 11/02/06
Original URL
L.A. Man Wins World Moustache Award
Earlier this month, Alexander Antebi, a young Jewish man from Los Angeles, came out of left field to beat the Germans and the rest of the European old guard of the World Beard and Moustache Championships at their own game.
With long hair and a waxed handlebar moustache four years in the making, Antebi, 26, became the youngest, and the first American, to win the imperial moustache title at the championships, held September 1 in Brighton, England. He is also the first Jewish moustache champion in history, a title which, like most competitive beard and moustache categories, has long been dominated by Germans.
He spoke proudly about his newfound celebrity after the biennial event, which was covered by MTV Europe, CBS, the BBC, and Time. "I didn't expect that my facial hair would get me all this press," said Antebi, a fashion entrepreneur and musician who grew up in Bel-Air and who describes himself as a being "stuck in antiquity."
"There was so much goodwill there," he said. "Most of the guys I was competing against [had] moustaches [that] were older than me."
About 200 people crowded into the sold-out spectacle, where Antebi bonded with Günter Rosin, a German multiple-championship winner who would soon become his moustache mentor. Rosin taught him an age-old Bavarian moustache styling secret - beer.
In competitive beard and moustache circles, a world that Antebi describes as "extreme facial flamboyance and dandyism," contestants drink beer with a straw and often avoid eating, to keep their well-groomed moustaches intact. "Eating soup is a nightmare, and the combination of my long hair and moustache also makes kissing difficult at times," says Antebi.
He plans to compete again in two years, when the championships go to Anchorage, Alaska, and he expects to enter the same category. "But you never know. You might catch me in a Hungarian."
Originally published in Los Angeles CityBeat's 2007 best LA issue
Reversing Reform: California's prison 'reform' has turned into the biggest prison expansion in state history
On Father's Day, a group of young activists from the anti-prisons group Critical Resistance stood in the midday sun outside the Twin Towers Correctional Facility with a huge card for visitors to sign. As echoing commands from the inmate reception center boomed from loudspeakers around them, the activists told a steady stream of visitors to the downtown L.A. jail that they could send a Father's Day message to the inside by writing on the card.
"I think he's going to be overjoyed with happiness, knowing that I'm by his side always," said a woman who only gave the name Deena, whose son Daniel had been behind the adjacent walls for five months.
Critical Resistance wants to stop the expansion of the prison system in the U.S., which now has more than two million inmates, at a time when
California is currently engaging in one of the biggest single prison expansions in its history.
On April 26, the legislature passed a bill to expand the state prison system by 53,000 beds, a $7.7 billion undertaking labeled "prison reform" that was supported by Democrats and Republicans without significant debate. The construction alone is huge: Assembly Bill 900 describes building projects phased over a period of years and funded by revenue bonds costing California taxpayers about $15 billion, including bond interest.
Bond interest and additional operating costs not included in the bill could drive the cost up another $2.2 billion per year, adding to the state's prison budget - which is already proportionally the highest in the nation, swallowing 8 percent of California's total budget.
"How irresponsible of elected official to pass a bill without even considering what its costs are going to be," said John Lum, public policy coordinator for Californians United for a Responsible Budget (CURB) and Coalition for Effective Public Safety, two prison-reform groups working for alternative solutions to mass incarceration. "We've got massive social issues in California, and we don't need to be throwing money away on things that don't work."
Although he campaigned on promises of prison "reform," Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has indicated he now supports prison expansion. With more than 172,000 prisoners locked up in facilities meant to accommodate about 100,000, the state's prison overcrowding problem has led federal courts to deem the conditions unconstitutional. AB 900 proposes to increase inmate rehabilitation capacity and create smaller facilities in urban areas, aiming to more effectively reintegrate inmates into society and reduce recidivism rates, currently at 66 percent.
Yet these proposed community rehabilitation and reintegration centers will house 500 inmates, a number too large to be effective, according to Lum, who has more than 30 years of experience working in corrections.
"They are deceiving themselves and the public when they say that this is being tough on crime," Lum said. "Simply locking people up and making them institutionalized, [while] providing little to no opportunities to return to the community as law-abiding and productive members, does not make them or us any safer."
CURB and other prison-reform activists are working to thwart prison expansion through the courts. They say what's needed is not more prisons but a discussion about sentencing reforms, to reduce the number of people incarcerated. In Sacramento, Lum and others in the coalition are looking for ways to challenge the legality of using revenue bonds without letting the public vote on it.
By providing various legal resources, information about prisoners' legal rights, and education about the politics of prisons, Critical Resistance works on a grassroots level to build relationships with people affected by prisons.
As visitors signed the Father's Day card, you could hear knocking sounds from one of the many small, rectangular windows in Tower Two.
"They can see us, but we can't see them," said a woman, looking up and waving.
As the day passed, the large cardboard card filled up with messages in English, Spanish, and Chinese from inmates' relatives, who also gave names and booking numbers of their loved ones so the greetings could be forwarded.
"A lot of people believe that fighting the legislative front, lobbying, and playing the system is the most effective system," said Austin Delgadillo, 24, a community organizer and member of Critical Resistance. "We see that, even with the way this [prison expansion bill] was passed, we're always running up against walls with these people. They are always going to protect their jobs and their careers over the interest of the people."
While advocates of alternative prison reform fight an uphill battle in a political environment that favors a "tough on crime" stance, and where most legislators are afraid of being seen as soft, polls show that building new prisons is a low priority among California voters. A May 2007 poll by the Public Policy Institute of California showed that only 32 percent think the state should be spending more money on prisons, whereas a majority supports increases in spending on education, health, and infrastructure.
"Prison expansion is not prison reform," Delgadillo said. "We know that if they build 53,000 new prisons beds they're going to overfill them, and then they're going to say we need to build more."
Originally published in Los Angeles CityBeat on 07/05/2007
Harvesting the Secret Gardens: 'Operation Alesia' has raided pot farms on public lands
Last week, an unprecedented collaboration among federal, state, and local agencies began a well-publicized blitz campaign in northern California's Shasta County to root out illegal marijuana gardens hidden in national parks and forests - a phenomenon that occurs statewide and is partly the result of stepped-up eradication efforts and tighter border security.
At a news conference in Redding, officials involved in what is known as Operation Alesia trumpeted the successes of the three-tiered campaign, which involves at least 400 people from Shasta County law enforcement, the National Guard, and 15 other agencies. During the conference, Director of National Drug Control Policy John P. Walters described marijuana growing on public land as a threat to public safety and the environment, and referred to growers as "violent criminal terrorists."
Slated to end July 27, Alesia has already become a model operation and is expected to yield record numbers of seized plants in the county while driving away illegal growers.
Officials say most pot gardens are run by organized Mexican drug cartels who are armed and pose a threat to the public, citing instances in which passersby were threatened and shotgun-rigged booby traps were discovered.
"The safety of our forest visitors are paramount to this operation," says Mike Odle, a spokesperson for the National Forest Service.
In Southern California, eradication teams seized 157,994 cannabis plants in San Bernardino National Forest during 2006, the second highest count among national forests in the state. And despite unusually dry conditions there, this year's number of eradicated plants there could exceed last year's amount, according to Sgt. John Ginter of the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Narcotics Division. The county's eradication team made 12 arrests last year.
"The damage that is done to the forests with these outdoor grows are tremendous," said Ginter. His department has completed two raids so far in rugged terrain inaccessible to most vehicles.
Law enforcement groups say 80 percent of the environmentally intrusive marijuana gardens are located on public lands, often near recreational hunting and fishing areas, where growers can run water into remote areas through irrigation piping. The growers clear trees and vegetation, use pollutant fertilizers and pesticides, and guard the gardens round the clock during the May to September season, leaving trash and chemicals behind. The gardens vary in size and are often irregularly shaped to follow the contours of the landscape and avoid detection from the air.
Operation Alesia represents a local stepping-up of the marijuana eradication effort, an ongoing part of the state's Campaign Against Marijuana Planting (CAMP), which between 1983 and 2006 eradicated more than 6.9 million plants.
Funded by $180,000 in earmarked federal grants, Operation Alesia involves 225 people on any given day, who conduct simultaneous raids. Eight days into the operation, agents had conducted 30 raids, seized 180,169 plants (valued at an estimated $1.08 billion), and arrested two people, said Sgt. Janet Breshears of the Shasta County sheriff's office.
Only 20 percent of gardens on public lands are found and eradicated, Odle says. Following the eradication of a garden, National Forest Service personnel remove irrigation piping, clean up contaminants and trash, take water and soil samples, and replant native vegetation to avoid soil erosion - a restoration process that cost $11,000 per acre, according to Odle.
In addition to the federal grants, the National Forest Service provided $100,000 to be used for land "reclamation," a scaled-down version of restoration that mostly involves removing trash and irrigation piping.
Removing irrigation piping makes it harder for the growers to use the same spot next season, Breshears explains.
Law enforcement measures the success of marijuana eradication in plant count. Last year, state agents conducted 477 raids across California and seized a record 1,675,681 plants - 541,000 more than in 2005, when the campaign led to 27 arrests and 29 weapons seized, according to a report by the state attorney general's office.
"It's like 'Whac-A-Mole,'" says Bruce Mirken, director of communications for the Marijuana Policy Project, the nation's biggest legalization advocacy group. "They will chase them out of one area, and they will turn up somewhere else."
Although the state's marijuana eradication effort has become increasing effective in terms of seizures, it has had little effect on curbing the demand for and availability of pot.
"The problem is, this is a popular product, like it or not," Mirken says. "As long as there is a market, somebody is going to supply that market. [The government has] been doing marijuana eradication since Nixon was president and accomplished absolutely nothing," adds Mirken, who argues that eradication is a fantasy. "After more than three decades of so-called marijuana eradication operations, it's the United States' and California's number one cash crop."
Replacing prohibition with a system similar to alcohol policy, which would allow marijuana to be taxed and regulated, would lead to combined savings and revenues of $10 to $14 billion per year, according to a 2005 study by Harvard economist Dr. Jeffrey Miron, which was signed by more than 500 economists including the late Milton Friedman.
"Einstein said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result," Mirken says. "We have been doing the same thing with marijuana since the Nixon administration. The results haven't changed. Maybe it's time to rethink."
Originally published in Los Angeles CityBeat on 07/19/2007
Regulating Reefer: As the city works to control the number of medical marijuana dispensaries, more and more patients are signing up
When a working group of city officials and medical marijuana advocates first met in February to decide how Los Angeles should regulate its medical marijuana market, they were surprised to learn that nobody could say how many dispensaries are in the city. No one was keeping track.
Within the next few weeks, the L.A. City Council is expected to unanimously pass a moratorium on new medical marijuana dispensaries, the first step in an effort to regulate the city's rapidly expanding medical marijuana market. Since November 2005, the number of dispensaries has grown from four to somewhere between 100 and 200 today. Medical marijuana advocates and dispensary operators support the moratorium, because it will allow the city to cap the market until well developed regulations are in place, without disrupting supplies to patients.
Councilman Dennis Zine, who introduced the idea of the moratorium last September, also suggested creating the working group to study and develop regulations for medical marijuana dispensaries. This group consists of officials from the city attorney's office; members of the building and safety, planning, and police departments; and representatives from the councilmembers' staff as well as from Americans for Safe Access, a national medical marijuana advocacy group.
The moratorium, which would go into effect immediately, calls for a yearlong ban on new dispensaries, with the option of extending it twice for six months at a time. During this period, the working group would meet once a month to develop the regulations.
"This is going to be the most complicated and arduous regulations process we've seen yet," says Chris Fusco, L.A. County field coordinator for Americans for Safe Access. He anticipates that it will take two years to develop the rules, as the process will involve several different departments. Regulations will spell out zoning laws, operating requirements such as permitted opening hours, security issues such as security guards and cameras, and limits on how much medical marijuana a patient can acquire at each visit.
Existing medical cannabis collectives with the basic documentation that any dispensary would already have obtained will have 60 days from the moratorium's passage to register with the city so they can stay open during the moratorium, according to Fusco.
More than 10 years ago, California voters passed Proposition 215, also known as the Compassionate Use Act, giving patients and caregivers the right to possess and cultivate cannabis for medical purposes. State Senate Bill 420, passed in 2003, clarified the amounts that are legal to possess, while also giving members of medical marijuana collectives the right to grow and supply to other members in return for compensation.
West Hollywood is among the few cities that have a medical marijuana ordinance, which limits the number of dispensaries to four and allows them only on a few major commercial streets.
"We didn't really see that much activity until the last couple of years," said Michael Jenkins, city attorney for West Hollywood. "We're mostly concerned about making sure that the dispensaries don't have any adverse impacts in the surrounding neighborhoods."
That is a concern in Los Angeles, as well. In a November 2006 report to the Board of Police Commissioners, L.A. police Chief William Bratton proposed a zoning restriction to prohibit dispensaries from operating within 1,000 feet of schools and parks. That proposal has come under debate, as Americans for Safe Access considers such a limitation too restrictive and based on an arbitrary number.
"We want [regulations] to make sure that collectives are sufficiently buffered from sensitive uses," Fusco says, "[and that dispensaries are] compliant with their business licensing and taxes paperwork. Things that any sensible business of this nature would comply with."
Los Angeles County has implemented a voluntary medical marijuana identification card program - mandated by Prop. 215 but slow to catch on in the state. (Less than half of California's 58 counties have such a program.) Issued to eligible patients by the county department of public health, the cards are good for a year and cost $166, with a 50 percent discount for Medicare patients.
"When we began this process and were estimating how much we needed to charge [for a card] to cover our costs, we estimated that we would have 3,000 cardholders in Los Angeles County," says John Schunhoff, chief deputy director of the county Department of Public Health. "But we don't know if that is a small number or a very large number."
Patients must make an appointment to apply for a card in person, and, since the program's inception on June 1, the department has only received about 130 application requests, according to Schunhoff.
"For most people, the cost of the card alone is going to be far more than their doctor's visit, on top of the cost for medication," says Fusco, who nevertheless recommends that patients get one. "This card will finally give limited immunity to bona fide and qualified patients in Los Angeles County."
Since implementing a patient identification card program in 2005, as called for by SB 420, the state has issued about 13,100 cards, according to Lea Brooks, spokesperson for the California Department of Health. The program has been mired in financial hardships and nearly went bankrupt after its first year because of low demand, according to Fusco.
Initially, the card program was only being implemented in progressive areas like Mendocino County, where the demand for cards was low because patients did not need them, he says.
"Where we really needed the cards were in the populous conservative counties down south," Fusco says, referring to counties like Los Angeles, San Diego, and Riverside.
Americans for Safe Access estimates that about a third of the state's 300,000 medical marijuana patients live in L.A. County. Another estimate suggests the number of state patients to be between 150,000 and 350,000 and the California market to be up to $2 billion per year, according to a 2006 report by Oakland medical marijuana advocates Dale Gieringer and Richard Lee, which made a case for taxing the cash crop.
The California Board of Equalization determined in April that medical marijuana dispensaries were not exempt from taxation and sent out an open letter requiring dispensaries to obtain a seller's permit and register with the board to pay sales tax, or face interest on taxes due and penalties.
The supply sources for the L.A. medical marijuana market remain largely unmapped, although some suggest that the nearly two dozen recent raids on suburban growing houses in the area point to an increase in local marijuana cultivation, possibly to supply the increasing medical marijuana market. But the city of L.A. has no plans to get involved with quality control and safety regulations of the drug itself - that responsibility is entirely upon the dispensaries. There are potential health risks associated with smoking or ingesting moldy or pesticide-tainted marijuana.
"Any compliant collective very carefully screens any medicine before they pass it on to patients," says Fusco, who notes that all sensible dispensaries in the city effectively self-regulate.
The Greater Los Angeles Caregivers Alliance - the state's largest self-monitoring group, consisting of 60 active local collectives - offers an unofficial license of approval to dispensaries that pass a series of inspections. The alliance meets monthly and has thus far inspected and accredited 11 dispensaries, with 20 more currently being considered.
"We see self-regulation as an absolutely necessary part in this process [because] the government just moves so slowly, and somebody needs to do something about these collectives," Fusco says.
Originally published in Los Angeles CityBeat on 07/19/2007
Running On Empty: Drivers seek benefits and financial support for Clean Trucks Program
Moments after accusing his employer of intimidation, Rene Estrada looked afraid as he stood proudly in front of TV cameras between a pastor and a reverend, who held up his arms like a boxing champion.
Estrada, 46, a truck driver for three years, is one of many independent contractors working in the Long Beach and Los Angeles ports who long to become regular employees because they lack benefits. Talking through an interpreter at a July 30 press conference outside a Long Beach Harbor Commission meeting, the soft-spoken Salvadoran immigrant said he and his coworkers were coerced by their employer into signing a petition stating they wanted to remain independent.
"I live the experience of having the dispatcher tell me, 'Here, you have got to sign this. Remember that the pinches want to take the truck away from you,'" said Estrada. "By telling the truth, I will probably get fired by tomorrow."
However, the Rev. William Smart, codirector of the Coalition for Clean and Safe Ports, an advocacy group including environmentalists, labor organizations, health advocates, and local religious and community leaders, assured the assembled that "We are not going to let anything happen to this man for standing up for righteousness and justice."
A week after the press conference, Estrada was still working for the same company but had been asked to do double shifts. He was also told he had to realign the rear axle of his 1983 International, which would cost him $5,000.
Last November, the Long Beach and Los Angeles ports introduced the Clean Air Action Plan (CAAP), an exceptionally ambitious strategy that puts the San Pedro Bay ports at the forefront of environmental policy efforts. The two ports, which together create the single largest source of air pollution in Southern California, account for 40 percent of national containerized trade, or $300 billion worth annually, and are expected to see a doubling of goods movement by 2020. The goal of CAAP is to reduce port-related emissions by 45 percent by 2011, while allowing for much-needed improvements and expansion of goods-movement capacity. The plan estimates the cost at more than $2 billion over the next five years, funded primarily by bond measures.
In June, the two harbor commissions postponed a final decision on the plan until September, to allow for further review and an economic impact study. The first steps would be reducing port-related diesel-truck emissions by 80 percent by 2011, introducing pollution fees on old trucks, enhancing port security, and requiring that companies operating in the ports meet concession standards.
The Clean Trucks Program, a central part of the plan, calls for the ports to replace or retrofit all trucks older than 1994 models, starting next January 1. About 16,000 diesel trucks operate in the two ports, and 15 to 18 percent are from 1988 or earlier. The Clean Trucks Program would also require trucking companies to make employees of all 16,000 drivers working in the ports.
"We did not ask our drivers to sign anything," said Robert Curry, president of K&R, whose company would adhere to any new operating procedures. "Seventy-five percent of our people have indicated in a straw vote they would rather keep their trucks."
As an independent contractor, Estrada is responsible for all costs associated with his truck, including repairs, tires, insurance, parking, and licenses. Although he works up to 90 hours per week, he brings home about $20,000 per year.
According to a 2004 survey of Long Beach and Los Angeles truck drivers - 90 percent of whom are from immigrant backgrounds like Estrada - their average workday lasts 11.2 hours. The average trucker, who works 33 percent more than a typical full-time employee, earns an annual income of $29,903 after expenses. Ninety percent have no health insurance and, because they get paid by the load, are dependent on their employers for work while receiving no workers compensation or retirement plans.
Port officials realize the cost of new trucks would be a hardship on companies and virtually impossible for most drivers.
"I think everybody expects the costs to go up," said Art Wong, assistant director of communications for the Port of Long Beach. "There is going to have to be added costs to clean up all these trucks, and business will pay the cost and pass the cost on to their customers."
Trucking industry representatives warn that CAAP would eliminate jobs and repel small businesses operating in the ports. Industry interest groups have announced they will challenge the plan with lawsuits, while environmentalists and organized labor groups support the plan and call for stricter environmental and workforce standards. The ports are gearing up for a legal fight: L.A. port officials recently met to discuss adding $2.185 million to its legal budget.
Wong is confident CAAP can withstand a legal challenge. "We're building a plan that has a goal of cleaning air quality, and we think we have the legal authority to require that the trucks coming in to port property are clean."
At the Long Beach Port Commission's July 30 meeting, the Coalition for Clean and Safe Ports presented 11,000 signatures supporting the Clean Trucks Program. Estrada, who got involved with the group after talking to one of its signature collectors, thinks the CAAP will benefit drivers. "I started working as a driver because I thought I would be able to live a better life, but I found that that wasn't true," he said. "I have nothing. If I get into an accident, there's no way to go, and when I retire I have nothing, no retirement plan."
Originally published in Los Angeles CityBeat on 08/16/2007
The Condors' Call: Ban on lead bullets might have saved No. 245
California condor No. 245, one of only 147 free-flying members of the species in the world, died this month at the Los Angeles Zoo where it was being treated for lead-poisoning at levels 56 times of what is considered at risk for children.
Originally published in Los Angeles CityBeat on 08/30/2007
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The majestic bird was trapped by L.A Zoo wildlife biologists in Bitter Creek National Wildlife Refuge and given two drugs in an effort to flush the lead out of its blood. The bird's death came as the California State Senate considered a bill that could decide the fate of the condors.
"We're already at 147 free-flying condors so the loss of even one is a tragedy," said Assemblyman Pedro Nava, D-Santa Barbara, who introduced the bill that would ban the use of lead-based ammunition in California condor habitat. A final vote on the measure is expected this week.
Assembly Bill 821 would protect the fragile and artificially sustained California condor population from lead poisoning, contracted by ingesting bullet fragments left in carcasses and gut piles. Opponents see it as a disguised attack on the Second Amendment rights of hunters and a threat to the hunting industry.
The legislation would require big-game hunters to use non-lead ammunition in California Condor habitat, stretching from the Antelope Valley to Monterey Bay and home to 74 free-flying birds..
This week, on its third attempt to pass through the state Senate, Nava's bill seems likely to receive the simple majority vote and be enacted by July 1, 2008. The measure, approved by the state Assembly on a 42-32 vote in May, was inspired by a similar ban at Tejon Ranch, a 270,000-acre privately owned ranch in the Tehachapi Mountains, that hosts the state's largest hunting program.
"I have no desire to interfere with (hunting), I just think it can be done in a way that does not kill this signature species for California," said Nava about the need to eliminate lead bullets and thus lead poisoning, which is the biggest threat to free-flying California condors.
The death of No. 245 also turned out to be an opportunity to raise awareness about the endangered carrion feeder, which has a wingspan of up to nine feet. This year, at least three out of nine deaths of wild California Condors have been attributed to lead poisoning, according to Audubon California. Because of the low amounts of calcium in their carnivore diet, California condors eat bones and often mistakenly ingest hard objects such as lead bullet fragments.
Wildlife biologists and numerous environmental groups alike, argue that lead poisoning is the most preventable threat to the California condor and that a lead ban is needed to safeguard the birds.
Organizations such as the National Rifle Association, along with firearms manufacturers, retailers, and hunting groups, oppose a ban, calling it a radical step to save a small bird population and based on "hypothetical evidence" that does not concretely link lead bullets and lead-poisoning.
"We could never support a ban on ammunition that is not supported by sound science," said NRA spokesperson Rachel Parsons.
"I think that (the NRA) are acting more out of fear than reason," Nava said. "We know that lead ammunition is the single cause of lead poisoning in condors, so it makes sense to ban the use of lead ammunition in condor country."
Despite a perceived lack of hard evidence, the NRA is supportive of outreach initiatives like Project Gut Pile that acknowledges the dangers lead pose to condors, said Parsons. Both sides agree that educational campaigns like the one by the California Department of Fish, which educates hunters about the effects of lead-based ammunition, are essential to any effort to save the condors.
"Hunters should be encouraged and made aware that there are voluntary things that they can do, such as burying their gut piles or removing their game from the field," said Parsons, whose organization favors educating over regulating hunters.
The California Department of Fish and Game have also opposed to the ban, saying that enforcing the law, writing $500 fines to hunters in the field who fail to comply, would be both too costly and practically difficult. The law calls for regulating the sales of ammunition but does not address enforcement in the field or how much such a personnel intensive effort would cost.
The bill calls for the Fish and Wildlife Commission to start a coupon program that, if funding is available, would give hunters discounted or free non-lead ammunition.
A box of copper bullets, which are the best available non-lead alternatives, cost only about $5 to $10 more than lead-bullets and the price is not as big of an issue as availability and a lack of certain calibers, said Brendon Preston, general manager of Second Amendment Sports, a hunting supply store in Bakersfield.
Firearms retailers are opposing the ban, saying that it cost them business and inconvenience hunters because the market for lead-free bullets is undeveloped. Barnes Bullets is currently the sole manufacturer of copper bullets offering only four different calibers, while one more company has announced it would produce a lead-free alternative, said Preston.
"Ammunition makes up millions of dollars of our annual business," said Preston. "If they went all lead-free bullets, it would reduce [ammunition choices] to six or seven from thousands, which then in turn would affect ammunition sales."
Supporters of the bill point out that copper bullets shoot just as well if not better than lead bullets and that increased demand will expand the market for lead-free alternatives.
In the early 1980s, the last 23 remaining California Condors were caught and became the basis for a captive breeding program that has since increased the population to about 306 birds, 159 of which are kept in captivity, including 26 at the L.A. Zoo. The population goal of the Condor Recovery Program is to have populations of 150 birds in California, Arizona and Baja, Mexico.
"The captive breeding program has been a much bigger success than anyone expected," said Gary Langham, director of bird conservation for Audubon California.
California condors, North America's biggest birds, continue to face high mortality when released into the wild. Slow reproduction rates, with wild birds hatching only one egg less than once a year, human encroachment on condor habitats and electrocution by power lines, are the main mortality factors in addition to lead poisoning.
Field biologists use radio transmitters to closely monitor the small population of free-flying condor which, in addition to 74 birds in California, includes 57 in Arizona and 16 in Baja California. The computerized system tracks condor movements and helps field biologists trap the birds at least once a year to conduct blood tests and replace transmitter batteries.
"We're hoping that (the Senate) will do the right thing and call for a ban," said Langham. "What we are really asking for is a switch from one bullet to another that shoots the same."
Originally published in Los Angeles CityBeat on 08/30/2007
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Hope for Truckers: A view of port cleanup from inside the cab
Filipe Lopez rolls across the Vincent Thomas Bridge in his metallic green 1997 Freightliner, and points down toward a blanket of smog covering the Port of Long Beach. "Do you see that contamination? We are breathing that."
The 36-year-old Lopez, a Long Beach resident from Nicaragua who has hauled containers to and from Long Beach port terminals ports for 13 years, wants port officials to pass the Clean Trucks Program, which he believes would give him and the other 16,000 independently contracted port truck drivers a better life. As an independent contractor who gets paid by the load, Lopez spends about two-thirds of his annual income of $100,000 on his truck. He works 60 to 65 hours a week, without any benefits to speak of, and he feels exploited by a "broken" system.
The ports' proposed Clean Trucks Program would subsidize the cost of new trucks to trucking companies, which, in turn, would be required to hire truck drivers as employees (with benefits) and assume fiscal responsibility of maintaining the trucks. "For myself, I would have a better life as an employee because I wish to have medical insurance and vacation," says Lopez. "If I get sick I have to go to Tijuana to take care of myself."
In July, a coalition of environmentalists, union representatives, and business and religious leaders presented a petition signed by 5,000 truck drivers seeking employee status to the Long Beach Harbor Commission. Their independent status, they argue, is misleading because they still depend on a specific company to hire them and give them permission to access the terminals. They are not free to switch between employers on any given day.
Long Beach and Los Angeles ports have taken on a pioneering task of increasing goods movement efficiency while also cutting in half port-related emissions within a five-year period. The crusade will require a balancing-act between concerns of environmentalist, truck drivers, and the shipping and trucking industry. The Clean Air Action Plan (CAAP) has been as widely criticized by the trucking and shipping industries for its upending of the status quo, as it has been praised by environmentalists for its groundbreaking goals and clean technologies.
Douglas Reber, owner of Overweight Container Logistics, a small trucking company with two employee drivers, is an opponent. "I think it is a foolish bet for [the ports] to assume that the owner operators are going to choose to become employees. That's a union con job. If [the ports] give me a bailout plan, I'll pack my bags and go. They're going to knock me out of business."
One of the main objections that trucking companies have with the CAAP is its concession plan, in which companies wanting to operate in the ports must sign a contract and meet financial standards that include having a minimum number of employee drivers. The ports have yet to set the rules, but the plan is likely to do away with some of the 1,300 businesses now operating at the ports. Critics argue that the ports favor this outcome because it would be easier to manage fewer businesses.
"Requirements for financial standards have no relationship to a trucking company's [ability] to perform cleanly and legally within the port environment," says Fred Johring, president of Golden State Express Inc., a trucking company that employs 22 owner-operators.
Earlier this summer, the port commissions postponed a decision on the CAAP to allow for an economic impact study of the effects of a concession plan. A vote is possible by the end of the month.
"If you price it a little bit too high, the cargo moves somewhere else or less of it moves through here, and you have damaged the system," says Art Wong, associate director of communications for the Port of Long Beach.
According to truckers and trucking company representatives alike, the fastest way to reduce port emissions and increase efficiency would be to reduce time spent waiting in line at the terminals by opening them up 24-7. In the current system, in which terminals are open from 7 a.m. to 2 a.m. and close down for lunch and other breaks, truck drivers wait in line with their engines idling for more than half of the workday.
"We're an embarrassment when you compare our efficiency with that of Hong Kong and some of the overseas ports," says Johring. He says that the Port of Hong Kong operates around the clock and reimburses trucking companies for overtime spent waiting for a haul. "We need to be more aware that holding up the drivers in the terminals is a constraint on capacity."
The plan to reduce the ports' environmental footprint and, at the same time, increase capacity, places the two ports "green philosophy" at the national (and even international) forefront of environmental port policy. Shipping and trucking businesses are uneasily awaiting what could be a paradigm shift in operations, though port officials point out that the five-year plan also gives companies enough time to adhere to new standards.
"What the ports are doing is allowing all the people who work in and around the ports to get ahead of the curve, before [state or federal environmental] regulation would come," says Bill Van Amburg, senior vice president of Calstart, a consortium representing green fuel and technology industries. "They've really raised the bar."
Originally published in Los Angeles CityBeat on 09/06/2007
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